I Got to Talk to Susan Stamberg and Everyone Listened in on the Conversation

Here's the Link to the Indie Bookstore Holiday Pick Roundup. You can listen to me recommend Little Bee, as if you haven't heard me recommend it before. I've also got my other favorite books to talk about--hope I didn't make to many factual errors.

Needless to say, I was a little starstruck about the whole experience. And not just about Ms. Stamberg, though let's just say I am still a bit overwhelmed by those kinds of interactions. No, I was sort of starstruck at being grouped with regulars Lucia Silver and Rona Brinlee.

Especially Rona Brinlee of the Book Mark in Atlantic Beach, Florida. I still remember her 2008 piece where she talked up Wrack and Ruin and City of Thieves, books that are familiar to folks who shop Boswell regularly because I always want to talk about them. This year's book that she hyped that I'm obsessed with was Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You...except with everything going on, I didn't read it yet.

But Rebecca in our store loved it and my sister Merrill loved it and Dave loved it at Next Chapter. For me, that's an equation for sure-fire pleasing.

My next visit to Southern California is definitely including a pilgrimage to Studio City. And if I were living in Florida, I'd be driving hours to visit the Book Mark. Hint to everyone I know who lives in Florda.

Thurber Prize Committee Agrees--"Wrack and Ruin" is the Funniest Novel of Last Year

Now how can I make this pronouncement?

Look at the other nominees?

Lamentations of the Father, by Ian Frazier. Essays. Didn't read it, but read two of his other books and have a subscription to the New Yorker. I "pay" to read it on "paper." Does that count?

I was Told There'd be Cake, by Sloane Crosley. Essays. Hilarious Essays, but essays none the same. Just sold this to my ex-coworker Carrie, visiting from Portland. Sent an email to me saying, "You've still got it. Book is just what I was looking for." Totally paraphrased. But Carrie, you understand that this sort of feedback is a bookseller's coke fix. Unless the bookseller is addicted to cocaine. Then coke is sort of his or her coke fix. Thanks, Carrie.

The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death, by Laurie Notaro. Essays. Sadly, I've never read a Notaro. They're so easy to sell because I've worked with so many other booksellers who loved her that I can always quote one of them. It's no excuse. I'm sad.

Look! Just one novelist! That makes Don Lee's Wrack and Ruin the funniest novel. Hurray. Vindication. Go buy the book. From me. I'd like to sell more.

Winner announced October 1st. Or so Associated Press says. Totally paraphrased.